Tony Banks Doubts Genesis Reunion Would Be Good Enough

Tony Banks said that the 50th anniversary of debut Genesis single “The Silent Sun” calls for “some great commemoration” – but he’s not certain that will include a reunion.

Speculation was reignited after Phil Collins recently ended a self-imposed retirement, and Banks was impressed with his former colleague’s comeback performance in London. Still, the keyboardist thinks there are some unanswered questions surrounding any potential regathering.

“Phil is not really capable of drumming anymore," Banks told Billboard in a new interview, echoing sentiments he’d previously expressed. “He's singing well, but he can't really walk very far and he certainly can’t drum, so he's a bit more limited in what he can do. Obviously, you could have someone else drumming and we could do a show, but it would have to be a very, very different kind of approach if we were to do anything again -- and, then, would that really be Genesis? You've got to make certain you can put on a show that is good enough to be a Genesis show.”

Banks stopped short of ruling out a reunion, noting that “it’s never impossible,” before reflecting on the earliest moments of the band’s five-decade history. “We were very young and sort of naive at that point, and it feels like an awful long time ago," he said.

"We changed so much and adapted and so many things happened to us," he recalled. "It makes you feel very old, I have to say. But then you think about from 'Silent Sun' to A Trick of the Tail, that was only eight years. And when you talk about Invisible Touch or something, which is about 30 years ago now and only feels like 10 years ago. Your life sort of gets compressed in certain areas – but in a good way, I think. There's a lot of good work there.”